Page 2 - Facts and Forensics - AFI-LLC May 2022
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Facts and Forensics – AFI-LLC – May 2022 2 of 4
UPDATE: Your Rights and Dignity – End of Life is Not End of Dignity
We continued monitoring SB22-053 “Health Facility Visitation During Pandemic - Concerning visitation rights at health-
care facilities” (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/SB22-053). However, after passing the full state Senate, it was assigned its
first House committee – State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs – another ‘Kill Bill’ committee and where it has sat
unscheduled since the end of March. We appreciate your support and regret the bill appears to die in the state House
without a hearing in its first committee – the legislative session ends 05/12/2022. This, after passing the Senate by 75%
in favor. This, like other past bills for the rights of patients and families, is a disgrace to those who find their power more
important than the rights, love and dignity of those dying and their loved ones. One party has been responsible for this,
and the continuing events of 2020. This undignified injustice must end and rights restored. One other bill we supported
for related personal reasons was the patient’s rights to choose off-label medications. This also died in the first House
committee without being heard. This indignity has ran so deep, our interview for a human rights story (in February) by a
nearby local newspaper – with whom we’ve had a multi-decade relationship with has decided to table the story as
having no public interest.
We will not give up. We will work with these bill sponsors for the 2023 legislative session for the same bills, and ask a
visitation bill be named in our Mom’s honor – the Shirley Ann Younger (SAY) Patient Before Policy Act; and we would
like to see these bills before Congress and require all states and healthcare systems to return rights and dignity to all.
New Commentary: Facts and Forensics
In our world of evidence, the foundation
Forensics. From digital to anatomical, crime
scene to interview – Forensics plays a role,
often multiple, in each of your cases.
What is Forensics? That depends on who is
asking and why they want to know.
Essentially, it is simply the application of [fill
in the specialty blank] to the law. It is finding
the evidence, analyzing the evidence and reporting the evidence – evidentiary fact finding. For us, it is Facts Or
Reasonable Evidence Necessitating Systematic Investigative & Critical Solutions. Your investigative education, training,
background and experience are vital to our clients and the strategy of their legal solutions on behalf of their clients. We
are all familiar with Forensics – and with the reality, not fiction.
We are finders of fact and solutions critical to our clients. In Forensics we do so by understanding that science does not
lie, but the misapplication of scientific methods to our investigations may produce fouled solutions. Are there issues
with the official investigation and evidence? Possibly, however, it is not intentional to look for errors – the purpose is to
see what the facts and evidence tell us. What is most often the case is missed evidence or evidence applied to the
information incorrectly – non-factual presented as facts.
One of the tasks of almost every investigator – particularly those involved in civil and criminal litigation – is to review,
deconstruct and analyze any underlying official investigation – such as a motor vehicle collision, workplace incident or
premises liability. You have the advantage of experience and cognitive skills outside the box; it is what professional
investigators do best. Although there are limitations, such as time and budget, there is also have latitude – finding and
reporting facts, and not either constrained or focused on reasonable suspicion, probable cause, reasonable doubt or
possibly promotions or bonuses; unintentional distractions and precursors to tunnel vision.
In Forensics it is often a problem looking for a solution, and they are not always obviously connected. It is a scientific art.
The evidence in your review consists of all the available official records, reports and photographs – from all scenes, and
any decedent or victim, as well as means of transport, location of event, and location found, are scenes. What do the
witnesses state – either in official investigation reports or independently to a professional investigator? What
information is within the law enforcement records and reports? What information is in the autopsy and investigative
reports? Are there medical records – event specific and historical – of any decedent or victim? Finally, what do the
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